CHIP KIDD

AGE: 44
OCCUPATION: Associate art director at Alfred A. Knopf, novelist
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: Opinions vary, but Kidd is generally considered the go-to guy for book
cover design. And his second career as a novelist got a nice boost this year
with good notices for his latest, The Learners.

CON: As is often the case with replicable success, Kidd's book-jacket
dominance is provoking backlash. (Updike has called his stuff "monstrously
ugly.") Soon, he'll be the orthodoxy some new Kidd will rebel against.